Month: November 2008
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Santa versus The Sint
For the past 500 years Sint Nicolaas has been celebrated in the Netherlands every year on December 6th. It is a very separate holiday then Christmas. Sint Nicolaas is when children put their shoes out for candy and gifts. Surprises are made and given and after December 6 the Christmas season starts. Christmas is/was purely…
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The Dutch Santa is Here Again
Getting older has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is having older children that do not care about Santa Clause or huge amounts of presents. Here in the Netherlands Sint Nicolaas comes on the 6th of December, after that Christmas is purely a religious holiday. As a parent, I quickly fell in love…
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Yet Again, Two Wrongs Make a Right on Mars.
Do you ever have that feeling where you seem to be the only one in the world who is sane? I was raised with values much like the ethic of reciprocity otherwise known as the ‘golden rule’ and I have tried to view the world with those values. As a child I learned about the…
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No Racism on Mars? You’re Joking!
I have been here in Europe for 19 years and have often heard that there is not as much racism here as in America. Europeans often refer to the civil rights movement of the 60’s and how backward Americans are with giving blacks the vote and so on. They also say that there is not…